Heard about the Creative Twinning project? Yes or no, get yourself down to the Contemporary on Friday 26 October to have a good look. In the meantime, Sue Bulmer explains more for us.

Creative Twinning is a unique partnership of Nottingham based designers, Debbie Bryan, JC Middlebrook and Hannah Lobley. It cultivates international cultural exchanges between designers from Nottingham and its twinned cities around the globe. The project began in Karlsruhe, Germany during May 2011; as the three Nottingham based designers decided to put the Nottingham and Karlsruhe’s ‘Cultural Agreement’ (signed October 2009) to the test by showcasing their sustainable art work at Eunique; the leading international trade fair for Applied Arts and Design in continental Europe.

Three Karlsruhe designers were invited to visit Nottingham in October 2011 for series of creative events and to showcase their work at the Lace Market Gallery. They were accompanied by a representative from the City Council of Karlsruhe, a member of the Culture Office – Department of International Relations who had met the Nottingham designers at Eunique in May.

In response to these successful events, the Nottingham trio have embarked on more International exchange projects; this year returning to Eunique in partnership with Design Factory and showcasing with another six designers from the East Midlands. Jayne Childs of JC Middlebrook is currently working with Karlsruhe designer Brigitte Adolph on Nottingham lace inspired silver jewellery which has been exhibited both in Germany and UK. Their silver cuff collaborative piece made by Brigitte Adolph from Jayne’s lace design has recently won FIRST PRIZE in German ‘Schmuck’ (Jewellery) magazine.

Building on the Creative Twinning event in 2011, this year three new designers from Karlsruhe along with a group of East Midlands based designers will be exhibiting in our Creative Twinning showcase at the Nottingham Contemporary on 26th October 2012. Plans to exhibit at Eunique 2013 are underway as we aim to take even more designers to Karlsruhe on the Creative Twinning adventure.

Look out for more of Sue’s blogs about the Creative Twinning event – it’s shaping up to be really exciting!

Sue Barsby

A Southerner displaced, Sue is a writer, knitter, conker fetishist, bewildered working parent and caffeine appreciator. When no-one is watching, she likes to dance to John Paul Young’s Love is in the Air. She is one of the authors of Circ: A Ten to One novel. She blogs a lot. You can follow her on Twitter at @basfordian.

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